Mars is classed by astronomers as a superior planet because it is located further from the Sun than the Earth. Mars orbits the Sun at a mean distance of 227.925 million Km and receives an average solar irradiance of 586.2 W/m2, which is 43.97% of the Earth’s insolation. Unlike the terrestrial bodies of Venus, Earth, and Saturn’s moon Titan which all have a surface atmospheric pressure greater than 0.1 Bar (10,000 pascals) and therefore have tropospheric thermal radiant opacity [13], the surface atmospheric pressure of Mars is 636 pascals at the planet’s mean radius. The tenuous gaseous envelope of the Martian atmosphere is highly transparent to thermal radiation and consequently the planet experiences major surface atmospheric window thermal energy loss to space.
The main constituent gas of the Martian atmosphere is Carbon Dioxide 95.1% by volume. The atmospheric pressure varies seasonally between 400 and 870 pascals due to the sequestration of solid carbon dioxide on the polar icecaps during each hemisphere’s polar winter (Table 2).